|
|
Last  on
Shelsley Walsh hillclimb, July 3rd 2004
Shelsley Walsh was a great day out. I started off slowly on my first ever visit to the hill, and soon worked my way down to a 37.60 second run, in dry conditions, on the Yokohama tyres. The weather forecast was poor for Shelsley, so I didn't fit the slicks. Its a lovely venue. The hill requires real commitment from the word go, and it wasn't long before I was going through Kennel in 3rd, and approaching the Bottom S flat in fourth gear. I video'd the practice runs and the 1st timed run (38.38s). However the video recorder ran out of memory at the start of the 2nd and fastest timed run (37.6s). Not to worry, the footage from the 1st timed run gives a pretty good idea of the steepness of the hill.
The venue features an unusual practice arrangement. After signing on, you are given a scrutineers card. You then wait for the scrutineer to check the car, he signs the card, and you can then go over to the other end of the signing-on hut to hand the card in. You then decide which two practice batches you want to go out in. There were 10 batches in all, and I elected to go out in the 3rd and the 10th. On the first practice run I was very cautious, and the video shows I was lifting off very early for the corners, and not carrying much speed up the hill. Then there was a very long delay as batch 8 was waiting for their practice runs. One of the single seaters had speared his car through the hedge at Kennel, and we had to wait until around 1:30pm before going out in batch 10. The organisers had quite a job to recover the wreckage and repair the hole in the hedge.
I think I did well to record a sub 38second run on my first visit. It was a great test of the car, and it certainly is a horse power hill. I was giving around 130 horsepower away to Bernard Armitage in his Escort Mk2, and I was only 4.1 seconds slower up the hill. I'm sure I could have gone a couple of seconds faster if I'd have had a few more goes up the hill. My best 64ft time was 2.78seconds, which considering the first 64feet are up hill, was pretty good. I'll definitely return for another attempt on the hill next year.
Times were as follows:
41.77s 1st practice
39.10s 2nd practice
38.38s 1st timed
37.60s 2nd timed
Result: 3rd in class
Weather: Cool, cloudy, wind, some spots of rain, approx 21° C
Tyre pressures were 23.5psi [F] 21.5psi [R]
Tyres: Yokohama A032R all round
Rear anti-roll bar was on the 2nd softest setting. (5x stiffer than standard ARB).
Front shock absorbers MAX-2
Here is a PDF file with the report that appeared in Nottingham Sports Car Clubs 'Spinoff' magazine, and Loughborough Car Clubs 'Backfire' magazine.
RaceTechnology DL90 datalogger from both competitive runs. (Files are in Race Technology's own .run format, for use with DL90 software)
Timed run 1 [nn KB]
Timed run 2 [nn KB]
If you have difficulty downloading the .run files, simply right click on each link, and choose Save As. Then open the file from within the DL90 software.
Video footage using an on board camera.
 1st non-practice timed run, 38.38s (4MB)
|
